Goal 1 Healthy Families

Increase physical activity, fitness and access to healthy, nutritious foods for children, youth and families

Food Share of Lincoln County distributes staples to area food pantries, soup kitchens and even a mobile senior food pantry out of its warehouse in Newport

“A good percentage of the people that use our program do not own their own homes, but some do,” said Nancy Mitchell, executive director.  “A lot of them are in trailers, hotels, apartments or camping in tents.”

Samaritan Health Services has supported the food bank for more than two decades. This year Samaritan awarded a Social Accountability grant to provide staples, such as milk, soups, peanut butter, canned fish and meat that provide higher nutrition value to the underserved and unhoused in Lincoln County.

“The support we get from Samaritan is really important for us to be able to buy food for people that are either diabetic or are homeless,” said Pati D’Eliseo, development coordinator. “I’m not a doctor, but I would say that protein is really important for people that are unhoused and for people with diabetes. High protein foods are good for your body. So that’s the main reason why we we’re trying to augment with healthier food choices through these grants.”

The food bank uses monies from Samaritan to purchase items not found in the weekly delivery of more than 15,000 pounds of food from the Oregon Food Bank. In 2021, Food Share of Lincoln County distributed more than one million pounds of food to the seven food pantries that they serve.